Russia’s president wants to use sport to give the population a feeling of normality and unity. Many athletes allow themselves to be exploited by the regime – they are ostracized internationally for this.
The international careers of numerous Russian athletes are over – poster of figure skater Kamila Valiyeva, who was recently banned for doping, on a hotel facade in Moscow.
Mikhail Voskresenskiy / Imago
Putin’s team. Under this name, politicians, artists, scientists and other people in Russia gather to support the president. Athletes are among the most important players. Vladimir Putin repeatedly appears at rallies with former and current Russian athletes. The sport is part of a nationalist campaign that is expected to result in the president’s re-election this weekend.
For example, there is Sergei Karjakin, who grew up in Crimea in Ukraine but has long been a proud citizen of Russia. The chess player Karjakin had already won the title of grandmaster at the age of twelve. He won tournaments, traveled abroad, and was considered a role model for young people playing chess. Since 2022, Karjakin has supported the invasion of Ukraine with pathetic words. His international career seems to be over, but he is always a guest of honor at national youth competitions – including in occupied Ukrainian territories such as Donbass.
Supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine: Russian chess grandmaster Sergei Karjakin.
Pavel Lisitsyn / Imago
Or Vladislav Larin. The taekwondo fighter from Russia’s far west won gold at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Larin recently released a video soliciting donations for the Russian military. Other successful athletes such as figure skater Kamila Waliyeva, who was recently banned for doping, or former national soccer player Andrei Arshavin appear with Putin at major events. With such actions, which are broadcast on state television, Putin apparently wants to give the population a feeling of normality and unity – while Russian soldiers are fighting and dying in Ukraine.
Russian athletes are dependent on the state – due to a lack of private sponsors
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) wants to prevent the upcoming Summer Games in Paris from becoming a platform for Putin’s messages. Athletes from Russia and friendly Belarus are only allowed to compete in individual disciplines as “neutral athletes”; national symbolism with anthems, coats of arms and flags is prohibited. In addition, participants are prohibited from maintaining connections with the military and security organs in Russia. Anyone who supports the war in Ukraine is not welcome.
But how can this be checked? Is the retransmission of pro-state content on social networks already considered support for the war? In addition, top-class sport in Russia is closely linked to the security apparatus. More than 10,000 athletes train at the Central Army Sports Club in Moscow, the CSKA. Dynamo Moscow also has a historical connection to the secret service. There were 209 Russian athletes at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, 34 of them belonged to the security bodies, 15 had officer rank.
As in other countries, athletes in Russia are dependent on the state due to a lack of private sponsors. Many athletes who join the Army complete basic training but are not necessarily interested in military service. Of the Russian athletes in Beijing, 13 were also members of the National Guard, the Rosgvardiya. This unit, which reports directly to Putin, is deployed in the Ukraine and has been subject to sanctions by the EU.
Russian high jumper Maria Lasizkene is happy to forego the anthem and flag to take part in the Olympics.
Imago
The attitude in Russia towards international sports associations such as the IOK is inconsistent: There are athletes such as the high jumper Maria Lasizkene, Olympic champion in Tokyo, who would like to forego the anthem and flag in order to take part in the Olympics. But also athletes who embed these requirements in an anti-Western narrative: “I would never travel to Paris under these conditions,” said swimmer Yevgeny Rylov, who won gold twice in Tokyo. As a supporter of Putin, he is not allowed to take part in the Summer Olympics this year anyway.
The “neutral athletes” are likely to be portrayed in Russian state media this summer as ambassadors for an emerging great power. Just like Russian athletes in the 2010s, when the country was one of the most important hosts of sport thanks to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 World Cup.
Today the reality looks different. Russian world champions and Olympic champions are hardly active internationally anymore, but usually compete against each other in regional competitions in front of a few hundred spectators. State television often broadcasts these events at great expense, and ministers sometimes stop by and give speeches. On such occasions, banners and spots are used to advertise the recruitment of soldiers.
He won two gold medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but he is unwanted in Paris: the Russian swimmer Yevgeny Rylov.
Matthias Schrader / AP
The Kremlin is trying to use sport to emphasize Russian self-assertion. Ten years after the Sochi Games, politicians and the media describe the Olympic site not as an overpriced environmental sin, but as a leisure area for the middle class. Putin also announced the construction of training centers outside the metropolitan regions, which could benefit local politicians, oligarchs and construction companies in the provinces. And he ordered the development of “alternative competitions”. Athletes from states that are dependent on Russia could use these to distinguish themselves from Western organizations in a public manner.
Russian sport has changed fundamentally in a short period of time. Today he has to subordinate himself to domestic political goals even more than before. Under media attention, the National Olympic Committee in Moscow has tied up the sports administrations in the occupied regions of Ukraine. Football clubs in the annexed Crimea such as FC Sevastopol and Rubin Yalta were integrated into the Russian league operation. Sports fields, halls and swimming pools in eastern Ukraine have been destroyed in many cases. Or they are sometimes used by Russian soldiers.
Criticism of Putin is risky for athletes
Athletes who express criticism of Putin in this social climate are putting their salaries, training places and now also their freedom at risk. Since the start of the war, around 250 competitive athletes have left Russia, many of whom are now competing for Israel, Serbia or Germany. International greats such as the ice hockey player Alexander Ovechkin, who has lived in the USA for almost twenty years, or the tennis professional Andrei Rublew choose their words carefully, possibly to protect their families and friends in Russia. They speak out for peace without directly criticizing Putin.
A few months before the European Football Championship and the Olympic Games, Russian influence in world sport has declined sharply. But he has by no means disappeared. The gas manager Alexander Dyukov is still on the executive committee of the European football association (Uefa). There are two members from Russia in the IOK: the former tennis player Shamil Tarpishchev and the former pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva.
As an employee of the Ministry of Defense, Isinbayeva holds the rank of major. She had often appeared with Putin, visited Russian soldiers in Syria with other athletes and was part of the committee that changed the constitution in favor of the president. The IOC has not sanctioned Isinbayeva, but many in Russia consider her a traitor. The reason: Isinbayeva now lives in a villa on Tenerife.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Commission has found no connection between 🇷🇺 athlete Yelena Isinbayeva and the 🇷🇺 armed forces and will not impose sanctions against her. Isinbayeva will continue to work for the IOC.
Ouch #FcKIOC 🖕 pic.twitter.com/8Bhyf79fa2
— @BrennpunktUA 🇩🇪🇺🇦 (@BrennpunktUA) July 18, 2023